Chapter 446: Advancement and Harvest

He had no idea how the Nagas had stalled things, but somehow they had actually delayed the Santalin for a full five days.

Rod couldn't be bothered to think more about the situation at Axe Beach.

He stayed in the White Dragon Tomb day and night, spending the daytime going wild with Eve, using 【Green Vine Mutual Healing】 to help her construct her War Soul while he himself used Spirit Devouring Forging to build his own.

On top of absorbing dragon scales, and finding time to water the Dragon-Slaying Greatsword.

Busy straight through to nightfall.

After knocking Eve out in the latter half of the night, Rod would sneak out back to the Naga camp to await his mother-in-law Lady Lilian's favor.

Lady Lilian was both heartache-stricken and wanting, her heart pulled to its absolute limit.

Every time she said they should sleep in separate beds, but every time she couldn't withstand the assault of desire, and would come night-attack Rod with mist gathering in her eyes.

One session and another half the night was gone.

Same as before.

These five days were a bit excessively decadent. Young Lady Miss Wen Na, who had watched it all, commented.

Decadent?

Rod didn't think so — compared to the Wind Wall Forest where there were practically daily parties in the artillery room, here was at most just health cultivation.

But for Eve it might have been a bit overstimulating.

After all, there were only five days. Although he had used a recording stone in advance to preserve the image of the ancient white dragon, in the end Eve's spirituality wasn't enough to construct a giant dragon on her own — she needed Rod's help.

So these five days could be considered as Rod giving her special attention.

She endured the stimulation brought by the impact and the sensitivity of being on the verge of losing consciousness, while devoting her mind to using spirituality to construct — extremely difficult.

At first it didn't go smoothly; often before half an hour of construction had even begun, she would start convulsing and rolling her eyes back.

Three months without contact had made her body especially sensitive.

It was only later that Rod slowed the pace and fed her an extra Spirit Seed to enhance her talent that things got better.

Deep within the White Dragon Tomb.

A warm-colored Light spell hung high overhead.

The frozen frost had receded over a large area, finally exposing the gray and brown rock walls.

Past the Dragon-Slaying Greatsword that had already been pulled out and casually leaned against the rock wall, and the human swordsman's grave, one could see the white dragon's ice seal had vanished.

After all, there were only five days.

Eve's progress wasn't exactly smooth — her rank and the quality of her spirituality were what they were.

Rod suggested she could choose to abandon the War Soul based on her previous image, so the pressure on herself wouldn't be so great.

But the greedy Naga wouldn't accept it.

More is better, and better is more.

Such a greedy one.

Unlike her, however.

Rod himself had a comparatively smooth time.

The first breakthrough was the scale absorption of 【Dragon Scale Art】.

Twenty hours — not a lot, but not a little either.

As the absorption progress kept advancing, Rod watched from his panel as this signature defensive skill of his climbed all the way from 【Dragon Scale Art】 to 【Dragon Scale Art +4】, while also gaining the modifier 【Enhanced Cold Resistance】.

He did a rough estimate.

Each +1 to the skill made it roughly 10% stronger than the previous level.

Assuming the original armor value of Dragon Scale Art was 100, then +4 would be 146.41 — let's ignore the decimals.

Defensive performance increased by nearly half.

Quite decent.

The second breakthrough was rank.

It had already loosened during the battle with the half-elf Virgil; he'd thought it would take about ten more days.

He hadn't expected that while he was busy with Eve, with a snap he just advanced.

There was basically no such thing as a bottleneck.

【Mature-Form Spirituality】 enhanced Strength, Agility, and Constitution, each by roughly 20% to 25%.

【Sharp Spirituality】 — spiritual cutting power and slashing-type spiritual arts further enhanced by 12%.

【Heavy Spirituality】 — bludgeoning, shock, and defensive-type spiritual arts effects further enhanced by 11%.

【Water-Attribute Spirituality】 — individual spiritual capacity further increased by 80%, water-attribute spiritual arts and amplification effects further enhanced by +10%.

The overall amplification didn't look as impressive as when he'd advanced to Seventh Rank.

But that was because Rod's base stats had risen now.

If an ordinary person had this kind of minor-stage advancement, they definitely wouldn't show such an obvious change like he did.

The main reason was still those dozen-plus Spirit Seeds giving him an extremely strong affinity with spirituality.

After advancing, Rod tested himself again with the brass spirit-testing orb — 369 notches.

A full 28 notches higher.

Eve also advanced alongside him. 【Elibert's Kinky Secret Tome】 ran at full efficiency, and under Rod's higher-grade spiritual infusion exchange, she also smoothly reached the peak of Sixth Rank.

Just like a Naga to be.

Greed by nature always triumphs over reason.

Rod also collected quite a few 【Greed Points】 from her, that's for sure.

And the third area of progress was the ancient white dragon's 【Spirit Devouring Forging】 War Soul.

Because the scales had been absorbed, the giant dragon constructed this time was a scaleless white dragon.

Nothing to be done about it.

【Outer Form Casting】 and 【Soul-Devouring Casting】 couldn't be used together, and 【Dragon Scale Art】 had a considerably higher priority than a dead dragon's war soul.

Still, after solidifying the war soul, the skills that should have rolled out weren't missing.

【Frost Affinity +1: Spirit-attached frost power; ice-type spells and spirit-art effects increased by 22%.】

【Purifying Dragon Roar +1: Purifies the weather, dispels haze, poisonous gas, rain, snow, and other foul weather; range and purification effect depend on the spirit's tier.】

【Dragon Power Art +2】

Because of the Soul-Devouring Casting method.

The three newly rolled skills came with +1 by default.

As for 【Dragon Power Art】, since it already existed, it went straight to +2.

After all, it was a giant dragon.

The test value on the brass sphere rose quite a bit, reaching 390 marks.

"Tally, pour me a glass of water."

Rod called out toward the 【Leomund's Secret Lodge】 beside him.

But there was no response.

He licked the sweat off Eve and found it didn't quench his thirst.

So he called out again.

Still no response, but instead Wenner opened the door and walked out.

"Miss Tally is still resting in bed."

This five-day-long White Dragon Tomb battle had been cranked to maximum intensity, so the succubus could only be doted on by her master during Eve's halftime breaks.

Even so, she could still eat her fill.

Eat her fill, sleep; wake up, eat again.

That was the succubus's most ideal, most perfect way of life.

"Pour me a glass of water."

"Me too." Eve also placed her order.

"Oh."

Wenner turned and walked back into the lodge.

This Puweir eldest daughter acted as though she'd long grown used to it — not a blush, not a skipped heartbeat, not even a need to cover her eyes.

"Hehe, you see, without me in the future, how would you ever manage on your own?"

Eve suddenly arched her back toward the ceiling, her face flushing red.

Then she flopped against his shoulder with a soft thump, panting, and only after catching her breath managed to speak.

"Can't we stay a few more days?"

"It's not that I don't want to — five days are up, Shantar Lin can't hold back any longer."

(End of chapter)